Children of the Shadows
by Higuchimon
Summary: Cast adrift, Kouichi finds himself in the home of the primal Darkness. The primal Darkness has brown hair, brown eyes (when they're not gold) and offers him miso soup.
1. Primal

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX &amp; Digimon Frontier  
**Title:** Children of the Shadows: Chapter 1: Primal  
**Characters:** Kimura Kouichi &amp; Yuuki Juudai  
**Word Count:** chapter: 2,280||story: 2,280  
**Genre:** Drama, Adventure||**Rated:** PG-13  
**Notes:** This takes place some years after the end of both series.  
**Challenge:** Advent Calendar Day #6 (Yu-Gi-Oh GX), Advent Calendar Day #9 (Digimon), Diversity Writing Section H, #8: a multichap with exactly four chapters; Crossover Challenge.  
**Summary:** [1/4 chapters; Kouichi, Juudai; 2014 Advent Calendar, Diversity Writing, &amp; Crossover Challenge] Cast adrift, Kouichi finds himself in the home of the primal Darkness. The primal Darkness has brown hair, brown eyes (when they're not gold) and offers him miso soup.

* * *

He walked in the darkness and he was the darkness and the darkness was him and he didn't know what else to think about it. One and the same, ever and always, from the beginning to the end, and he _didn't know who he was_ and why he was there and where he was, just endless night from horizon to horizon and were those even horizons? He didn't know. He couldn't guess. He wasn't sure of what to think about any of it. He just knew the darkness. And the darkness knew him.

The darkness was aware of him. Was it looking at him? Could it see him? Did the darkness have eyes at all? He wanted to know who he was, and it wasn't talking to him and he didn't know if he wanted it to or what he would do if it did.

The more he became aware, the more that he knew he didn't know anything. His own name eluded him, slipping and sliding away as if it were a living thing, a small lizard that didn't want to be caught, that flittered under rocks and peeked out only enough to make certain it could get away if he got too near it again.

He didn't know if that made sense. But he didn't know anything, so there wasn't much different about that.

And still the darkness stretched around him and enfolded him and was him and wasn't all at the same time and he _didn't know_ and he wanted to know and it cried out within him and something sounded around him and was that him?

Or was it the darkness?

Or one and the same?

A vague whisper of a thought – or perhaps a voice – brushed by him, all curious and questioning, but he couldn't grip onto it enough to know what it wanted or even what it was. He couldn't understand it. He thought that he should but he couldn't, and shimmers of frustration danced underneath his skin.

When did he get skin? He didn't know. The more he became aware that he didn't know, the more he wanted to know, and the more it infuriated him that he didn't know.

Again it came by, a little stronger this time, but he still couldn't figure out what the words were saying, or if those were words at all and not merely the passing regard of the darkness. He stressed and strained, drawing in a breath, and not at all certain of when he'd been endowed with lungs. But there they were, and there he was, and he wanted nothing more than to fill them with air.

The darkness wasn't as dark anymore. Or perhaps he could see through it. Again, something he didn't know and couldn't understand. It was just there. But the shadows still clung thickly to him and welcomed him as one of their own.

Along with skin and lungs, he found that he had a mouth, and there was a tongue somewhere along with it, and a few other body parts that he hadn't guessed he owned or needed. But all of that together meant one thing: he could talk. Or had the parts to talk.

He struggled. He wanted to say something. He didn't know still who he wanted to talk to or who was there to talk to or if he could say anything that made sense at all. His thoughts roamed loose and unconstrained, nothing making a shred of sense as they wandered from one vague observation to another, and he still hadn't found the part of himself that would make him care.

Somewhere in all of that chaos, he found himself looking up into what he somehow recognized as a night sky. Not the night sky that he recognized, but there were many reasons for that, among them the fact he didn't remember any night sky in particular at all. But he knew anyway that this wasn't the one he'd seen before. Before what? Still didn't know that.

A hand rested on his own, and it wasn't -wasn't one that he knew, but he knew it anyway, and it thrummed with the shadows, swirling and soft and hard and welcoming and curious.

"Are you together yet?" The voice wasn't one that he recognized and for all the same reasons that he didn't recognize the night sky. But for all of that, he knew it anyway. It was the same as his voice. The same as the shadows that filled him.

"I don't know." The words fell from lips he'd only just begun to be aware that he had, thick and confused and struggling to be heard. He blinked, and the world didn't come into focus, did nothing at all but spin and dance and whirl and he closed his eyes, preferring the darkness. At least there he felt safe and less like his stomach was about to upend itself. He didn't know what he'd last eaten but he didn't want to find out by seeing it coming back up.

* * *

Time passed. He could not have said how much. The other one, the other darkness, came and went, but he found he wasn't alone. He didn't know what the others in this place were, or where this place was, other than a realm where darkness alone walked, but they were there all the same. He thought maybe he was sick. He would have to be, to see some of what he saw there. No one who wasn't sick would see something like a humanoid dolphin or a two-legged scarab or – or -

Well, he had to be sick, that was all there was to it.

"You were sick," the other said, peering down at him. Now he could see the other more clearly, and he understood what he saw even better. "You kind of still are, but you're not seeing things."

He blinked a few times more, trying to get his thoughts to work together in some fashion that made sense. It wasn't easy at all, but he tried. He had nothing else to do with his time. He tried to move an arm and found he could do so, if only a short distance.

"Who-" He tasted the word strangely. He wasn't sure how long it had been since he'd said anything coherent. He wasn't sure if he had yet.

"Yuuki Juudai." The other sat cross-legged in the sand and looked at him curiously, dark head tilted to the side. "Do you remember your name yet? You've been out of it for a while."

He blinked a few more times, not certain of how to answer it. Then the little lizard that was his name fell into his hands and out of his mouth. "Kimura...Kouichi."

And with those two words, everything blocked in his mind unfolded and he breathed in a sharp, harsh, stuttering breath, quivering all over. "Kouji!" Kouji, Takuya, Izumi, Junpei, Tomoki...where were they all? Where was he?

Hands rested on his shoulders and he found himself looking into a pair of warm brown eyes. "Calm down. You're not ready to go back just yet."

Kouichi stared, heart racing, thoughts as chaotic as before, but now filled with memories of his brother and friends. "What do you mean?"

"What I know about you is this. You came flying out of the sky and landed face-first right over there." Juudai gestured over to a place not that far away. "The Neo-Spacians called me, and I came to see what was going on. You've been out of it for hours."

Hours? All of that had only been hours? Kouichi's hands clutched at the sand beneath him. Most of what Juudai said didn't make any sense, but he listened anyway. It was all he could do.

"It looks to me like you fell through some kind of gateway between worlds. Those are kind of rare, but they've been known to happen." Juudai stared intently at Kouichi, a frown forming between his eyes. "And you've got some kind of a connection to Darkness. Not like I do, but...that's why you came to Neo-Space. I think. I'm not good with this."

Kouichi wondered if having landed on his head was why this didn't make much sense. He felt like it should. It just _didn't_.

"You should probably try to get some real rest. That might help," Juudai said. Kouichi didn't even consider arguing. All he did was lay down and close his eyes and once again the darkness held him close.

* * *

Bit by bit the memories sorted themselves out, each falling neatly into place. Some were dustier than others but soon enough he knew what had happened.

"We saved the world," he said to Juudai, staring down into a cup of hot miso soup the other had given him. "We did it when we were just kids. Not even twelve yet for me." He found a small strange smile on his lips and liked the way it felt there. "Some people didn't take it all that well, though. The world we saved, the Digital World...the Digimon, the people there, one of them wanted to take over and rule it all. And I guess he figured that he wanted to get us out of the way first, in case we wanted to try stopping him."

His fingers tightened on the cup. "And we would have, too." He wasn't certain if Juudai would understand. Could he? Did he?

Juudai's fingers pressed against his hand and he looked up into a smile as strange as his own. "Of course you would have."

He did. Those eyes that looked into Kouichi spoke of a warrior, one who had fought his own battles. Perhaps not the ones that Kouichi had fought or in the same way that he had, but he knew what it was like to defend those he cared about.

Kouichi drew another breath and continued. "I never did get his name. I just know that we were hanging out at Izumi's place when all of the televisions and telephones started to go berserk. There were Digimon appearing on all of them, all evil ones. Then they started to actually show up." He shook his head, remembering how his hands had clutched for his phone, his instincts telling him to call on the darkness, to become Lowemon once again. Only he couldn't and he didn't, and then there had been hands on him, gripping him, and he'd seen more of them clutching at the others, and they'd _had Kouji_ and then there'd only been darkness...

He didn't know how long he sat there or even if he said anything else. He sipped at the soup, wondering who had made it. He could compliment them on the recipe, whoever it was.

"Sounds like you need to get back there fast," Juudai said after some time. Kouichi nodded. His friends needed him. His _brother_ needed him. If anything had happened to them while he was gone...

He looked around, trying not to let himself get too furious. It reminded him too much of other times to get too angry. "Where is this place anyway?"

"Neo-Space. You could call it the home of Darkness. _Good_ darkness, anyway," Juudai said. "I don't come here that often, but you needed the help. We Good darknesses have to stick together, right?"

Kouichi looked at him again. "You're... darkness too?" He didn't look like anything that Kouichi would've associated with darkness at all. Cheerful as a sparrow, brown as a nut, with a smile that was too large for his face, and …

And eyes that were suddenly a brilliant gold that made part of Kouichi wish to drop to one knee before a darkness far deeper, vaster, and older than his. The primal darkness, from which all shadows sprang, stood before him.

"Yes." Juudai's voice hadn't changed, but it was different all the same, old beyond words, calling to mind the ancient darkness behind the stars. Kouichi swallowed, at a loss for words like he'd never been in his life.

Then, between one moment and the next, Juudai's eyes glimmered brown once more and he reached over to scoop the cup of soup up from where it had fallen unnoticed from Kouichi's hand.

"Hey, you might want to keep breathing there. I hear it's a good thing."

Kouichi swallowed again, then squared his shoulders. "Can you help me get home?" He needed that more than anything else. Always Kouji lurked in the back of his thoughts, and if that Digimon had brought him to any harm...

Kouichi did not like remembering being Duskmon. That didn't mean he couldn't do it. Or that he hadn't picked up a few tricks from that time that could be useful when the occasion demanded it.

"I'll do what I can. If I can't, I've got a friend who I'm pretty sure can," Juudai promised. Kouichi had to believe him.

* * *

Time in Neo-Space wasn't easy to judge, but Kouichi thought he hadn't been there more than a couple of days before Juudai declared they were going to try to get him home.

"I'm getting pretty good at finding what world I want to go to. So if you just think about your world, and if I'm holding onto you, I should be able to take you there," he explained. Kouichi still didn't know if that made any sense, but he didn't have many other options than to trust him.

Darkness sprang up around them. Darkness was always there, but now it was more _there_. Kouichi rested his hand on Juudai's shoulder and together, the two of them walked into the shadows where they belonged.

**To Be Continued**


	2. Reversal of Fortune

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX &amp; Digimon Frontier  
**Title:** Children of the Shadows: Chapter 2: Reversal of Fortune  
**Characters:** Kimura Kouichi &amp; Yuuki Juudai  
**Word Count:** chapter: 2,015||story: 4,295  
**Genre:** Drama, Adventure||**Rated:** PG-13  
**Notes:** This takes place some years after the end of both series.  
**Challenge:** Advent Calendar Day #6 (Yu-Gi-Oh GX), Advent Calendar Day #9 (Digimon), Diversity Writing Section H, #8: a multichap with exactly four chapters; Crossover Challenge.  
**Summary:** [2/4 chapters; Kouichi, Juudai; 2014 Advent Calendar, Diversity Writing, &amp; Crossover Challenge] Cast adrift, Kouichi finds himself in the home of the primal Darkness. The primal Darkness has brown hair, brown eyes (when they're not gold) and offers him miso soup.

* * *

One of the first problems Kouichi encountered with traveling like this was that he realized in the first five seconds that he didn't have the foggiest idea of where to go. Earth? The Digital World? It had to be one of them – at least he hoped it did. He didn't know if the invading Digimon had somehow developed some other world or dimension or whatever one called it to keep the others in.

The solution appeared to him only a heartbeat after that. He might not know where to go, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt who he wanted to go _to_.

He had to concentrate to bring up Kouji's image in his mind. Normally he didn't have to think about his twin, because they were either close together or he could look in a mirror. There were a few differences between them, ones that only they could recognize offhand, aside from the length and style of their hair. Most of those involved just patterns of speech and movement. Neither of them counted clothing, and half the time their wardrobes were so mixed up that he'd once found himself wearing Kouji's jacket with no idea of when his twin had even left it there. Or if he even had, and Kouichi hadn't just picked it up and taken it home with him.

It certainly wouldn't have been the first time he'd done something like that, and he doubted that it would be the last.

So, with all the care he could muster, he shaped the mental image of his brother and focused on that. On Kouji. A shimmering, shining beacon of light, whether or not he carried the Spirits of that. While Kouichi stayed in the shadows and to the side, Kouji lived in the spotlight, whether he wanted to or not.

Frequently, Kouichi knew, he didn't. He preferred being left to himself, or with those friends who had won their way into his heart. But Kouji got along well with people, when he let himself. Kouichi didn't, unless he put in a lot of effort toward it, and he wasn't always ready to give that effort. Like Kouji, he preferred the company of those he liked to people he didn't know.

"So that's your brother, hm?"

Kouichi came within a breath of jumping out of his skin. He'd almost forgotten that Juudai was there with him. Then he blinked.

"You can see him?"

"We're both darkness, remember? And you're focusing on him so I can get you there. I couldn't do that if I didn't have some idea of where we were going." Juudai's grin flashed in the shadows, and Kouichi blinked again. What in the...

"I thought your eyes were brown. Or gold." He still didn't know everything about Juudai, but he was reasonably certain his eyes hadn't been teal-green and orange before.

Juudai jerked a thumb over his shoulder, and Kouichi could not stop himself from staring now. There stood a tall … being, with those same eyes that Juudai had, spreading demonic wings, and with a possessive hand laid on Juudai's shoulder.

"This is Yubel," Juudai said, resting his hand on the one Yubel had on his shoulder. "Yubel lives in my soul."

He said it with the same kind of simple acceptance that most people might've used to refer to the fact the sun rose in the east or that water ran downhill.

"Our power merged is what helps me travel through dimensions like this. So, my eyes are Yubel's eyes right now."

Kouichi blinked a couple of times, then shrugged to himself. "Nice to meet you, Yubel."

Yubel said nothing at all, only gave him a considering look. Kouichi wasn't certain what was going on behind those eyes and decided not to worry about it right now. Instead, he focused all of his attention back on the image of Kouichi and the aching desire he felt to be with his twin once again.

* * *

Kouji strained against the long strands of dark-twined energy that bound him, keeping him on his knees just as surely as the star design around him did

_I thought Grottomon was the only one who could do that._ It seemed he had been wrong about that, as Kagemon's power held him every bit as firmly as the long-gone Warrior of Earth's had.

Kagemon lounged in front of him, a long, sleek creature that looked more like a shadow given human form than anything else, save for his teeth. Those flashed glistening white when he smiled. "Are you enjoying yourself, Warrior of Light?"

"Can't say that I am." Kouji fought harder, slumping down after a few moments, trying to catch his breath. These bonds did more than just keep him from moving, he realized, they also sucked up what strength he could muster. "So when are you letting me out of here?"

Kagemon chuckled. "I don't think I am. I like having you here." He leaned forward and brushed his fingertips against the bottom of the bird cage that rose all around Kouji. "It's a very suitable place for you."

Kouji closed his eyes and muttered every swear word he knew under his breath, twice. "I'm not a bird. So why would I belong in a bird cage?" A bird cage shaped out of shadows, with a spellcast pentagram underneath it to keep him from moving more than the minimum. Kagemon had issues. _Lots_ of issues.

"Becaue that's where I want to keep you. You should consider yourself grateful that I didn't put you with your friends," Kagemon sneered. The expression morphed a moment later into something twisted and cruel. "Or that I didn't do to you what I did to your brother."

Kouji had done his best not to think about Kouichi for the last few hours. Now all of his fury burst forth. If he'd had been able to evolve, he would have, just for the pure pleasure of bringing down his swords right on top of Kagemon's head. He wanted to at least shake the bars of his cage, but even that was denied him. All he could do was yell. So yell he did.

"What did you do to my brother!?"

Kagemon's smile gleamed brighter, teeth sharp enough to cut the wind. "I did what I did to you, really, if you think about it. I put him where he belongs."

Kouji threw every ounce of his strength into moving even a little bit against his bonds. He wanted to do something, he _needed_ to do something, just to wipe some of that smugness of off Kagemon's face. "Where is Kouichi?"

"As I said, where he belongs. In the realm of darkness itself." Kagemon examined the tips of his fingers, which far more resembled claws than they did anything else. "Unfortunately, I've never heard of anyone finding their way back from there, so you're going to have to learn to get along without him. But I don't think you should stress yourself about it. Anything that he can do with darkness, I can do, and do it better."

"Is that so?"

Kouji didn't recognize the voice, but the fact it came from a patch of darkness he knew hadn't been there ten seconds earlier sent a spark of hope surging all through him.

"Well, I don't know what Kouichi can do with darkness, but I'm pretty good with it myself." The figure that stepped out wasn't Kouichi at all. Kouji fought to keep his heart from sinking. The stranger was tall, probably about their age or so, and looked utterly ordinary in every sense of the word.

Except for his eyes. Those gleamed in two clear and definite different colors, ones that sent chills all through Kouji.

What was even stranger was that he oddly reminded Kouji of _Kouichi_, though he couldn't put his finger on why.

"And you would be?" Kagemon didn't get up, but Kouji was just close enough to see how he tensed. Good. He wanted Kagemon tense. Actually he wanted him shrieking in pain, but he would take tense to start with.

"People call me a lot of things," the newcomer said, strolling closer, looking more as if he were entering his own home than the stronghold of an evil Digimon. "You probably wouldn't recognize most of them. Let's start with Yuuki Juudai."

Kagemon's growl echoed low and harsh around the room. "I don't know what sort of games you think you're playing, but this is a private home. You're not invited here, whoever you are."

Juudai tilted his head to the side. "Actually, I am invited here. By him." He gestured to Kouji. "Because we came to get you out of here, and I think that extends an invitation, doesn't it?"

Kouji blinked a few times. "What?" He didn't know who this Juudai person was, but he guessed rather quickly that he was confusing. And probably annoying.

And if he wanted to get Kouji out of there, Kouji would welcome all of that and more.

"Kouji." Now _that_ voice he recognized. He managed to tilt his head a fraction; moving still wasn't easy and he'd been caught in a position that really only gave him a good view of Kagemon. But he would know that voice if he were in his grave.

"Kouichi!" He could feel him now, a flame of shadow that rose behind him. He kept fighting, even knowing that every movement just took more of his energy from him. "Where are you? Who's that?" He knew that Kouichi was behind him, but he wanted to _see_ him.

A flicker of shadow resolved itself into his twin as Kouichi came around from the back. He bent worried eyes on Kouji. "What is all of this?"

"I don't know how he made it, but I can't get out of it. It just sucks up everything I try to do." The bird cage hung near where Kagemon lounged on shadows, with the pentagram sketched underneath it. "Grottomon used something like that once," he said, gesturing to the sandy image. "That's about all I know of it."

Kouichi's eyes narrowed and grew distant. Kouji recognized the signs of him digging into memories that he normally kept under close wraps, of the time when he'd been Duskmon. It had taken him years to even acknowledge that he still had access to them on any level, and years after that to even come close to wanting to look at them. It had taken him days to recover when he fully recalled what he'd felt when Duskmon's sword slammed into Kouji in the dark lands, and he hadn't let Kouji out of his sight for a week after that.

Kagemon wrapped his hands around the bird cage and shook it freely, more to disturb the twins than anything else, since even he couldn't make Kouji move from his imprisonment. "What makes you think I'm going to let any of you just go? This is my castle and neither of _you_ are welcome here!" He pointed one talon first at Kouichi then at Juudai. "Get out!"

"Is that all you can do to make us leave?" Juudai tilted his head to the side, not seeming even a little impressed. "Because if it is, you really aren't that impressive." His eyes gleamed in the shadows and Kouji realized now why he was reminded of his twin.

This boy, whoever he was, was just as connected to the darkness as Kouichi was.

Kagemon raised one hand. "No, it isn't. _Thorns of Shadow_!" Energy whipped forth from his hand and surged forward in the form of a thorny whip.

Behind Juudai there appeared a creature that Kouji had never seen before. It didn't look like any Digimon that he knew. But it stood behind Juudai, and thick green vines appeared in between him and Kagemon's attack. In unison, Juudai and the creature spoke.

"Nightmare Pain."

Kagemon's whip flipped backwards, striking him dead between the eyes. Juudai's smile was a sad, almost disappointed little thing. Then he glanced toward the twins.

"You'd better hurry."

**To Be Continued**

**Note:** Nightmare Pain is Yubel's effect. No damage is taken by the player and the damage that would be taken is inflicted to the opposing player instead. Basically, a mirror effect.


	3. Rescue, Escape, Rescue

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX &amp; Digimon Frontier  
**Title:** Children of the Shadows: Chapter 3: Rescue, Escape, Rescue  
**Characters:** Kimura Kouichi &amp; Yuuki Juudai  
**Word Count:** chapter: 2,108||story: 6,403  
**Genre:** Drama, Adventure||**Rated:** PG-13  
**Notes:** This takes place some years after the end of both series.  
**Challenge:** Advent Calendar Day #6 (Yu-Gi-Oh GX), Advent Calendar Day #9 (Digimon), Diversity Writing Section H, #8: a multichap with exactly four chapters; Crossover Challenge.  
**Summary:** [3/4 chapters; Kouichi, Juudai; 2014 Advent Calendar, Diversity Writing, &amp; Crossover Challenge] Cast adrift, Kouichi finds himself in the home of the primal Darkness. The primal Darkness has brown hair, brown eyes (when they're not gold) and offers him miso soup.

* * *

Kouichi's thoughts spun back to days he preferred to leave forgotten when he could. Now wasn't the time, though. Now he needed to know what he could, and he dug the memories up. He didn't know where Grottomon had acquired that powder, only that it could bind anyone so long as it remained in the proper configuration. There were other ways to negate the effect, but knocking the sand apart was the quickest and easiest way.

He didn't have Lowemon's power, but he didn't need it, not for this. He was part of the darkness, and Juudai had mentioned a few things about how darkness worked for those of them who belonged to it. It would be different for him than it was for Juudai. He still didn't understand everything about who or what Juudai was, but being brothers in darkness lent a certain amount of trust.

So now, he sank his hands into the shadow cast by Kouji and the cage – and a part of him hissed at the very thought of Kouji in a cage – and he could feel the living strength of it moving against him in a way that he never had before. He didn't know what made it like this but there wasn't time to ask questions.

Energy surged through him, replacing his blood with shadows. He didn't know if he cried out; he thought that he did. His voice made no sound and he clung with all of his strength to the darkness, willing it to help him, to break apart the bindings that kept the person dearest and nearest to his heart captive to their enemy.

**Why? Why should we help you and not him?** The words were not words, but they shaped in his mind nevertheless. There was no anger there. The darkness only wanted to know.

Kagemon was theirs as well, but not like he was. Not like Juudai was. Why should they help one against the other?

_He's not like us. He's evil!_ And even so, he knew the answer was wrong. The shadows did not fight him, but they didn't help him either.

**Should we help against you, because you are good, if he asks us?** Again, no hatred or anger. Only questions that he'd never thought he'd have to answer.

He strained harder, his heart beating faster, knowing if he failed, then Kouji would stay Kagemon's prisoner forever. If he couldn't save his brother, then he didn't know who could. They needed to fight together. They were strongest when they were together.

It clicked. And he smiled. _Help us because I ask. And I'm asking because this is something that I need to do. I have to help Kouji._ And he had to do it because it was _Kouji_, his other half, the one that he'd searched for. Light to his darkness.

Shadows flickered and shifted and he could feel something break apart somewhere. His eyes flew open -when had he closed them? - and a warm weight landed on top of him.

_Kouji._ He focused on the other as quickly as he could, both of them staring at each other for a few brief seconds.

"Thanks," Kouji murmured. Even after all this time, he still wasn't used to thanking people, even Kouichi. Kouichi could not help but find that a little endearing.

Both of them wriggled to their feet and turned toward Kagemon. Juudai still stood there, Yubel's arms wrapped in front of him in a protective gesture, and with that same relaxed smile on his lips. His eyes glimmered in the same shades that Yubel's did as he glanced toward them.

"Nice job, Kouichi," Juudai said, nodding in approval. He gestured toward Kagemon, who had one hand raised to prepare another attack. "Probably should do something about him. Or get out of here, whichever you prefer."

Kouji and Kouichi exchanged a quick glance, one that spoke volumes, between them. As much as they both wanted to put an end to whatever he had in mind, without their spirits and without the other Legendary Warriors, doing so wasn't going to be easy. It might not even be possible.

"I think we should go. We still need to find the others," Kouichi said.

"So how do we get out of here?" Kouji didn't lift his gaze from Kagemon for a moment, which proved useful when the dark Digimon lashed at Kouichi with a sphere of shadows. The two of them broke apart, dodging to separate sides of the room, but Kagemon followed Kouichi.

"Why didn't the shadows eat you?" Kagemon fumed, firing another blast at him. "How could you come back from the realm of darkness?"

Juudai raised one hand casually. "That would be because of me. You practically dumped him in my living room. Without even asking, I have to say. Not that I really mind. I liked meeting him."

"Same here," Kouichi said, grinning at the other born of darkness. "Are you ready to get out of here, Kouji?"

"I was ready before you ever got here," Kouji replied. Kouichi darted over, ducking underneath another blast, and sliding past Kouji as if he were sliding into home base. He reached up, wrapped one hand around his twin's wrist, and pulled them both into the darkness.

* * *

"We can't stay here long," Juudai said, his voice ringing through the shadows. He strolled up a few seconds later, looking for all the world as if he did this every day of the week. "That guy might be able to follow us here. I can't be sure of how much control he has over the shadows, so we'd better go find your friends."

Kouji wanted to say something, but darkness clung to his limbs and wrapped around his chest, and he couldn't force out the air. This was almost as bad as being restrained by Kagemon's dark tainted bonds.

"Kouji?" Kouichi stared down at him, then over toward Juudai. "What's wrong with him?"

Juudai took a long look before he answered. "I can't be sure, but I think he's too _light_ to handle being here. We'd better get going fast."

"Where to?" Kouichi knelt down beside Kouji, drawing him into his arms. "I don't know where the others are."

One corner of Juudai's mouth twitched up. "Did you know where he was?"

Oh. Well. Right. Kouichi never had done well with thinking clearly when Kouji was in any kind of bad state. Where to first, though? Or who first, really.

_Takuya._ Right. That would probably be for the best. He tightened his grip a little, feeling Juudai's hand on his shoulder once more, and drew the image of the Warrior of Flame in his mind. It wasn't quite as solid or clear or perfect as Kouji's was, but there were reasons for that. Kouichi chose not to inspect them too closely at the moment. Perhaps another time, when they weren't on the run from Kagemon and whatever else he had in mind.

* * *

Kouichi almost didn't want to emerge from the shadows. They wrapped around him, keeping him warm and safe, trailing against him in a comforting embrace. If it weren't for Kouji, he would've been tempted to stay there forever.

"I feel the same way," Juudai murmured. "But there's always so much else to do." His eyes glinted with a sudden amusement. "Always fried shrimp that I haven't eaten yet and duels I haven't played yet."

"Duels?" Kouichi wished that he and Juudai could just sit down and have a very long talk with each other about their respective worlds. He had a feeling that it would be beyond fascinating.

"Another time," Juudai said, waving one hand. "So, is that your other friend?" He did something of a double-take. "Or I guess I should say friends."

Kouchi's head snapped around and what he said after that would not have been repeatable in the company of most children. Takuya, Izumi, Junpei, and Tomoki all stood in chains, signs of having been badly beaten in a fight scattered liberally among them in the form of livid bruises, wounds that at best had stopped bleeding but weren't even close to beginning to heal, and torn and ripped clothes. Tomoki didn't even look as if he were conscious at the moment, no matter how often Izumi called his name.

"Guys!" Kouji lurched to his feet, breaking away from Kouichi to take two stumbling steps forward. Getting out of the darkness seemed to do him a lot of good, but he'd still spent too long chained up by Kagemon's power-draining bindings. Kouichi reached to steady him, knowing full well how furious his brother had to be.

Takuya looked toward them, his eyes widening. "Kouji! Kouichi!"

"He catches on fast, doesn't he?" Yubel murmured, Kouichi just barely hearing the words.

Standing around the others, and between them and the new arrivals, were a half-dozen Digimon of various types that Kouichi thought could best be lumped under 'strong and likely to cause a lot of damage when fighting'. None of them looked as if they wanted to give ground for a single moment.

He took a step forward, however, with Kouji matching him stride for stride, no matter how painful it was to do so. With each step he could feel the darkness moving with him, though this entire cell area remained lit by strong, almost painful light from above.

_You're of the Darkness,_ he heard Juudai's voice in his mind, and glanced to see the other not that far away, a confident smile on his lips. _It's always with you. The same goes for them, too. Though not for the Darkness._ Juudai's eyes flicked toward the other Warriors. _Once you're chosen, you're chosen. That's how it works where I'm from. I don't think it's that much different here. I could be wrong, though. But why don't you try to find out?_

"Release our friends and get out of here," Kouji snarled out the words, fists clenched, ready to unleash everything he'd ever learned from his teacher against the ones who stood to keep his friends from him. "And we might not send you back to the Village of Beginnings."

"But if you don't, I can guarantee that we will," Kouichi added. Shadows stirred more strongly about him, and he reached out to touch one almost without thought. To his hand it felt solid, real, not a vague nothing. The shape reminded him of the weapon he'd born as Lowemon, the Spear of Conviction.

No sooner had the thought passed his mind than the shadow seemed to take a more solid, more real form. He looked down at it, a bit confused at first, then lifted it upward to stare at what he now held.

It wasn't the same, but he saw the echoes of it anyway. A simpler shape, but a spear all the same, and he could feel the power of it resting warm and ready in his hands. With a single movement he pointed the sharp dark end toward the Digimon who stood between him and his friends.

"Didn't you hear us the first time? Get away from them!" Kouichi declared, taking one step forward.

"How did you _do that_?" He heard Takuya whispering, eyes as round and wide as saucers. He wasn't surprised. If there weren't so many Digimon there to fight, he would've thought the same thing himself.

And those Digimon didn't look as if they were going to back down any time soon. Kouichi raised his spear. He'd never trained in fighting like Kouji had. But for the sake of his friends, he'd fight to the last drop of blood in his body.

Kouji moved up next to him. In his hands he held two slender blades of light, that called to mind the sabers he'd used as Wolfmon. His twin grinned at him, and there was no way that it could be described as anything other than _wolf-ish_.

"If I asked where you got those, would I be surprised?" Kouichi wanted to know, a warm glow shimmering somewhere within his deepest heart. It was good to know that he wouldn't be alone in this.

"Probably not. If you can do that, then why can't I?" Kouji asked. "It's kind of easy, once you get the hang of it."

"I thought the same thing," Juudai agreed. "Now, since I'm not going to stand here and let you guys have all the fun, why don't we take care of business?"

Kouji, Kouichi, and Juudai turned to face the Digimon. Izumi caught a glimpse of their faces and sighed.

"I wish I had popcorn. And free hands to eat it with."

**To Be Continued**


	4. Goodbyes and Hellos

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX &amp; Digimon Frontier  
**Title:** Children of the Shadows: Chapter 4: Goodbyes and Hellos  
**Characters:** Kimura Kouichi &amp; Yuuki Juudai  
**Word Count:** chapter: 2,114||story: 8,517  
**Genre:** Drama, Adventure||**Rated:** PG-13  
**Notes:** This takes place some years after the end of both series.  
**Challenge:** Advent Calendar Day #6 (Yu-Gi-Oh GX), Advent Calendar Day #9 (Digimon), Diversity Writing Section H, #8: a multichap with exactly four chapters; Crossover Challenge.  
**Summary:** [4/4 chapters; Kouichi, Juudai; 2014 Advent Calendar, Diversity Writing, &amp; Crossover Challenge] Cast adrift, Kouichi finds himself in the home of the primal Darkness. The primal Darkness has brown hair, brown eyes (when they're not gold) and offers him miso soup.

* * *

Fighting like this wasn't entirely like fighting as Lowemon. He had no armor and he wasn't quite as fast or as strong as he would've been with the full strength of the Spirit of Darkness infusing him. This meant that he had to be faster, because if he could avoid blows by not being where they were going to fall, then so much the better.

And for that, shadows were very, very useful. Kouichi dodged and flowed from one point to another, taking any chance he could to dart in and get an attack. Kouji, from what he could see, did much the same thing, only his fighting skills were much stronger and sharper than his twin's. Kouichi wondered briefly if he should look into getting some fighting training of his own.

What really surprised him more than anything was how Juudai fought. Or precisely, how he didn't seem to fight at all, but simply wandered here and there, Yubel hovering protectively over him, and whenever someone struck at him, those spiked vines appeared, and with a soft murmur of "Nightmare Pain" from the two of them, the would-be attacker fell backwards, their own attack turned against them.

Kouichi wondered if he could learn that trick. It certainly looked useful.

He would ask later. Right now they were all too busy fighting their way through the guards around the others for something like that.

There were plenty of guards to fight through as well. Kouichi couldn't remember having seen this many, not since everyone had been trying their level best to get away from the encroaching Royal Knights back in the day. There might not have been that many now, but with the way they fought and got in the way, it certainly seemed that way.

His hands ached. His legs throbbed. His back sent sparks of pain all throughout him. Sweat ran down into his eyes, and he had to wipe them every now and then, taking the chance that he could lift his hands from his spear without getting attacked. He needed to breathe and there was never a spare moment in which to do so. The call of attacks and the blaze of their energy ripped through the air. He leaped over a slicing sword, kicked a muzzled face, and strained to get to the hanging cage.

_What is it with Kagemon and hanging cages?_ The irrelevant thought passed through his mind just long enough for him to be aware of it before he ignored it in favor of ramming the tip of his spear into a Devimon – thank goodness not an IceDevimon, facing one of those had been more than enough even when he'd had his full power – and seeing it disintegrate. He stumbled a few more steps and looked around, knowing there had to be another enemy somewhere.

And finding none. Kouji and Juudai also seemed to have run out of Digimon to fight, Kouji straightening up from a fighting crouch and looking all around as if he expected some kind of ambush out of nowhere.

When none came, each of them started to move closer to the imprisoning cage. Kouichi drew in great gouts of air, not entirely ready to believe that this was all over.

"Where's Kagemon?" he murmured, looking for any sign of their enemy. "He's not going to just let us do this, is he?"

"If he doesn't turn up to gloat, then I'd say he's probably got something worse in mind," Juudai observed. Takuya nodded from within the cage.

"Yeah, that's the kind of thing bad guys do."

Kouichi couldn't argue. He'd never been the gloating type himself, but he'd seen it in others before. Wherever Kagemon was, they'd likely wish he was there gloating before all of this was over with.

A few good whacks with Kouji's swords and Kouichi's spear sprung the cage open. It hadn't been sealed in the same way that Kouji's had, and what that might mean, Kouichi's mind shied away from. Some things were best left unthought, even by him.

"So, now what do we do?" Junpei asked, brushing himself off once they were free once more. "I don't think going back home is an option just yet."

Tomoki shook his head fiercely. "Kagemon's still threatening the Digital World. We should try to find Bokomon and Neemon and see what we can do."

Kouichi nodded, but his attention flicked to Juudai. "I can't ask you to stay. You helped us get my friends back, and that's more than I could ever ask."

Juudai laughed a little. "Hey, don't worry about it. You're kind of like a distant cousin or something, right? Family's family, even if we're kind of far apart."

"Separated by a few dimensions," Kouichi added, finding a smile on his lips. He glanced from Juudai to the other warriors and was abruptly reminded of his manners. "Everyone, this is Yuuki Juudai. He's..." How did you introduce someone who held the power of Darkness like you did, but so different?

Juudai smiled brilliantly, as if he did this every day of his life. "A friend. Kouichi landed in my place and I helped him get back here to you guys. That's all."

Kouichi's mouth all but hung open at that. Juudai had done so much more! He wanted to explain all of that, but Juudai caught his eye and gave the tiniest shake of his head.

If that was what Juudai wanted, then Kouichi wasn't going to argue against it. He drew in a breath and turned to Kouji.

"I think Tomoki has the right idea. Bokomon and Neemon might be able to help, or tell us who can." Perhaps the Great Angels would be available as well? He had no idea of how much time had passed in the Digital World since they left it, but surely they'd evolved more by now? They were likely strong enough to do something.

"Then I guess the next thing is to get out of here?" Kouji said, taking a look around. This cell didn't look like anywhere in particular, hung in an odd gray nothing that made Kouichi's skin itch the more he looked at it. "Think we can do that same trick to get out of here that got us in?"

Kouichi and Juudai looked at one another again. "Are you sure you want to?" Kouichi asked. He hadn't at all forgotten about Kouji's reaction there, and he wasn't sure of how any of the others would do either. "It's not exactly comfortable for you."

Kouji shrugged casually. "Staying here isn't either and I don't think we have any other way to get out anyway."

There was that. It wasn't something that Kouichi liked, but their options remained limited at the moment. He turned to the group.

"We're going to take a very special way out of here. All of you need to keep hold of me or Juudai. I don't know what could happen if you let go, and I don't want to find out."

Juudai's eyes glittered with a quick mischief. "You could probably get lost in the endless darkness and never, ever find your way out again." He paused for a moment, and Kouichi just knew it was for the effect of it. "Not that it's ever happened... that I know of."

Izumi cast a glance at him, then at Kouichi and Kouji. "Is he for real?"

"I'm more real than you can imagine," Juudai replied at once. "But Kouichi's right. For people like you, it can be very dangerous going through the shadows. You never know what could be going through them at the same time you are. We're not the only dark users out there."

Kouichi hadn't thought of that. And he decided now was a very good time to keep not thinking of that. "We'd better go, then. The sooner the better."

It took a few moments of fiddling to get everyone sorted out, and Kouichi wanted to make certain Kouji was beside him, just in case anything happened in the shadows as it had before. It wasn't that he didn't trust the others, because he did, with his very life.

His life. This, however, was Kouji.

"Everyone ready?" Juudai asked. He brought up the rear of the group, while Kouichi was at the head of the line. That way the shadows would enfold everyone.

"As ready as we can get," Junpei muttered, clearly not trusting this. Kouichi didn't blame him. If it weren't for his own experiences, he probably wouldn't have either.

With nothing more than that, dark shadows folded all around them, and they weren't where they'd been anymore.

* * *

"Did anyone think about where we're going?" Juudai asked a few seconds later. "Because I think we should know that."

Scattered noises of surprise spread among the group. It likely wasn't the first time in the history of any world that a group had started out on a journey without knowing their destination, but this was still one of the more dangerous ones.

"Let's try Flame Terminal. It was a good place to start last time," Takuya suggested.

"Think of it and we'll be on the way," Kouichi told him, and could almost at once feel those thoughts forming. His senses were so much sharper here in the darkness. He wondered if that would stick once they were in their own world.

_Of course it will. What have I been telling you all this time?_ Juudai's voice rang in his mind and Kouichi smiled.

_Sometimes I'm a slow learner._

_Don't worry abut it. It's a darkness thing, I think._

Kouichi wasn't close enough to see Juudai smile, but he could feel it anyway.

After a moment that was an eternity and not nearly long enough at the same time, the shadows fell away to reveal the familiar environs – at least to some of them – of Flame Terminal. Digimon wandered here and there, though none of them seemed to notice the strange arrivals in their midst.

"Wow, it's almost like when we first came here," Takuya said, staring all around. He glanced down at his hands and back up again. "Well, not entirely."

Kouji breathed in a little, his movements somewhat less fluid than they normally wore. "Let's see if we can find Bokomon and Neemon. The sooner we get on this the better."

"I think I should be going. I've got some things to take care of back home anyway." Juudai took a look around the place himself, eyes clearly fascinated. Kouichi could not help a small stiffening. For all that they'd known each other only the briefest amount of time, he knew he'd miss Juudai.

The other looked toward him and smiled. "But that's not to say I might not turn up again, now that I know the way here."

"You're welcome to visit any time. Here or our world," Kouichi said. "I think we have a lot we should talk about anyway."

"You're right." Juudai rested one hand on Kouichi's shoulder and smiled at him. "And you could probably use some lessons, too, couldn't you?"

Kouichi grinned at him. "I think there's a few things that you could teach me. If you'd like."

"I haven't met anyone like you in a long time. So, yeah, I would like." Juudai turned his attention to the others there. "I'm pretty sure you guys will protect this world. You've got that kind of look about you." His smile sent a jolt of warmth through each and every one of them. "So, see you around."

With nothing more than that, Juudai headed for the nearest shadow, murmuring something under his breath that only Kouichi could properly hear, and he didn't properly understand at that.

"A world that doesn't have dueling? Man, I need to come and show these people how it's done."

And then the shadows folded over him and he was gone. Kouichi stared at where he'd been and sighed. As much as he cared about his friends, there was nothing like having a brother around. Even when that brother wasn't entirely related to you by blood.

"Kouichi?" Kouji rested a hand on his twin's shoulder. "Everything all right?"

Kouichi held back a laugh, but only by a breath or two. "I'll get back to you on that once we've dealt with Kagemon." But aside from that, things really were looking up. He knew he'd see Juudai again.

In fact, he knew he was there in every shadow, just like Kouichi himself was.

"Takuya-han! Kouji-han!" The familiar voice rang out and everyone turned to see Bokomon and Neemon running toward them. Kouichi smiled. Time to get down to saving the world again.

**The End**


End file.
